Four Seasons
by bravenclawesome
Summary: Severus didn't know this, but when he reflected on this particular memory many, many years later, he realized that this was the exact moment out of them all when he had fallen hopelessly in love with Lily Evans...
1. Summer

Summer

The wind blew swiftly through the trees, the leaves rustling in its wake. Several of these leaves caught the wind, and they twirled and spun as the wind carried them effortlessly through the summer air. One leaf, brighter than all the rest, a brilliant shade of emerald green, floated downwards soon as the wind dropped, and landed in the reaching palm of a small girl.

The girl was not alone; she lay on the grass in the shade of a tree, next to another girl, older. The two of them were sisters, but they were so different – both in personality and looks – one would never guess that they were indeed of the same blood.

The younger girl who had caught the leaf lifted it up in front of her, and the shape of the leaf reflected in her own equally emerald eyes. She smiled for a moment, her entire face lighting up so bright that it would rival the biggest star when it grew dark, and you would wonder what was it about the leaf that made her smile so.

She tossed the leaf into the air in one quick motion, and it spiraled upwards. She watched it rise, and at the moment where most people would expect it to come back down, it defied gravity and continued to float gently upwards, twirling and spinning as it had when the wind had carried it.

_But there was no wind._

Those emerald eyes followed the leaf, and they seemed to sparkle with concentration as the leaf continued to twirl. It would almost seem as if she was controlling the leaf to move without touching it, but that was impossible, wasn't it? But then, what could make the leaf float with not a single string attached?

The older girl, by this time, had also noticed the leaf that appeared to have a life of its own. She watched for a few moments, and there was something reflected in her eyes too – was it wonder? Amazement? The sister's own dull grey eyes flashed, and what was there before dissolved; replaced by unmistakeable jealousy. She narrowed her eyes and turned to the first girl, who was still staring intently at the leaf in the air, and said, "Lily, _stop it._"

The leaf lingered in the air for moment, stopped its careful ascent up into the heavens for a second – then, whatever force had taken hold of it let go, and the leaf fluttered gracefully to the ground, landing unharmed in the soft green grass.

"How do you _do _that?" The older girl was staring at her sister with narrowed eyes. "I've tried and tried, and I can't move a single thing without touching it. Teach me." She said the last two words like they were a command, as if she expected to be obeyed. But her sister wasn't looking at her.

"I don't know, Tuney…" The girl named Lily was staring sadly at the fallen leaf on the ground. She wanted to make it fly again, wanted to watch it pirouette in the air as before, but she knew that if she did, her sister wouldn't like it.

And her sister was her best friend.

* * *

><p>Not so far from the two girls, a small boy watched them from behind an oak tree. The boy was bone-thin, with the greasiest hair one could ever imagine. His eyes were a deep onyx black – so dark it looked as if it were a dark hole, a tunnel with no end, where one would think they'd never see the light. His clothes were ragged and torn in places, looking in desperate need of a good wash, as they had gone yellow with stains. The boy watched as the bright green leaf floated upwards, and he saw the girl below it, carefully controlling the leaf with nothing but her eyes. <em>Magic.<em>

This was not the first time he had been spying on them. The first time he had noticed them was at a playground, where he was hiding again (but behind a bush), and the two sisters were playing on the swings. He had watched with great amusement as the redhead swung, kicking her legs out with surprising strength, laughing, as if she did not know the dangers of falling off the swing entirely. He continued to watch as she swung, higher and higher, and he could hear her blonde sister yelling, "Don't, Lily, don't go so high! You'll fall!"

Then Lily let out a tinkling laugh, and suddenly threw herself off the swing – the boy closed his eyes, bracing himself for the sickening _thump _and the scream_ – _but it never came. He opened his eyes and froze in shock, as he saw Lily flying – actually flying – spinning in the air like a trapeze artist, with a grace that he had never seen before, then landing effortlessly on the ground, without a sound, turning to smile at her sister, who stared in awe, speechless. He himself had been lost for words. That was the moment when the boy knew that he wasn't alone.

Since then, he had been watching them, and every time, Lily never failed to surprise him. The boy was astounded at Lily's magical ability; her magic was flawless, and it seemed to come to her with ease – that was another thing he envied about her, the fact that she could do magic at such an early age. The boy was confident that he was a wizard, but until now he still was not able to do any magic – he reassured himself that it would come to him sooner or later. He was pretty sure he wasn't a Squib – or was he?

The boy longed for a friend. He had never met any other children his own age at Spinner's End. So he envied the girls, simply because they were sisters, and siblings always stuck together - they always had company. He wanted to approach them, and ask them if they wanted to be friends… but how would they take to him? They didn't know him, and he didn't know what to say! After all, he had never had a friend before. He had never understood friendship; even the word itself sounded alien to him. He had never had anyone to talk to when he was out of the house. All his neighbors were either old, unmarried spinsters, doomed to a life of solitude or were without the blessing of children. The boy was quite alone – until the Evanses moved in.

The games he had seen Lily and 'Tuney' play were unfamiliar to him – hide-and-seek, ring-around-the-roses, and jump rope, hopscotch- why was it called hop_scotch? _He could perfectly understand 'hop', but why _scotch_? Muggles called their games the oddest things, the boy thought.

Not to mention that he also had the sorriest excuse for parents. Eileen Prince, his mother, was constantly depressed and almost never cared for him. And his father… the boy shuddered involuntarily, remembering the last time he had seen his father. It had not gone well.

* * *

><p>"<em>I'm back," a drunken voice called from the front door. No one answered, not even the boy, who was staring at the wall in the living room.<em>

"_Severus, you worthless, insolent boy! Answer your father!" the man said. His eyes glazed over, and he seemed to teeter on his feet for a moment before regaining his balance. He continued in the same drunk voice, but this one had a slight edge to it, "Severus…"_

"_You're back," came the sullen reply. "Finally."_

"_Don't speak to me in that tone, boy. You know your father works very hard every day for his family."_

_There was a pregnant pause._

"_Drinking firewhisky and not coming home until the light of dawn gets your job done? Your fabled, 'well-deserved' money?" said the small boy sarcastically. "I didn't know that."_

_He was on the floor before he knew what had happened. His cheek stung from the pain of his father's slap, and his father was standing over him, shouting, yelling, kicking him wherever he could. The boy curled up into a ball on the cold stone-tiled floor – trying to numb the pain by thinking about something else, anything else, but failed. He knew crying would be of no use; he had given up crying long ago. As his father continued to hit him, blow after blow, Severus felt himself losing consciousness; drowning in the pain, suffocating…_

* * *

><p>"Who's that over there, Tuney?"<p>

The boy came to his senses. He turned around and saw the girl called Lily looking in his direction. He quickly flattened himself on the other side of the tree, and closed his eyes in desperation. His thoughts came to him in a rush, tumbling over each other like a waterfall. _Please don't let her see me I won't know what to say oh please dear Merlin make me invisible so she won't see me I don't know what to do oh no I think she's coming what am I going to do?!_

"What are you doing?"

He opened his eyes and jumped as he saw her right in front of him. He backed away, and ended up hitting his head on the back of the tree. "Ow!" he grunted, rubbing his head from the force of the impact.

"Oh goodness, I'm so sorry! Are you all right?" She stroked the back of his head, and touched his hair, ignoring its greasy look, concern written clear as crystal all over her face. The boy started in surprise. No one had ever shown _this _level of affection to him before - not his father, and certainly not his mother. His father would never have dared touch his hair, preferring to insult it from a safe distance instead. His mother was never that affectionate anyway- she never seemed to know what to say to her son.

He looked at Lily's hair and noticed it was a very becoming shade of red - long, running down her back in gentle waves. It looked almost like a waterfall… except, _much_ more beautiful. The boy decided he quite liked Lily's hair.

He suddenly realized that Lily was looking at him with a strange expression, as if she expected him to say something. The boy blinked, and said "Hi," in a quiet voice.

Lily's face instantly broke into a wide smile. "Hello, I'm Lily!" Severus wanted to say "_I know_," but he wasn't sure how Lily was going to react to that.

"Lily…" Her name sounded pretty on his lips, the way he said it made him smile too, just a little bit.

Lily suddenly stuck out her hand. The boy stared, and looked at her again. "Um, what?"

"You're supposed to shake it. Don't be silly, you've done that before, haven't you?" Lily laughed, a tinkling laugh that made him want to hear it again as soon as it ceased.

The boy, however, felt extremely stupid inside. He didn't know what to say next, so he took her hand, and shook it feebly. Lily was smiling at him again. "Good, now we've introduced ourselves... oh, wait, you haven't! What's your name?"

"Severus," he replied.

"Severus? Sev-er-us…where have I heard that name before?" She looked into the distance, and suddenly something seemed to click inside her head, and her eyes lit up again. "Oh, so _you're_ the person next door! I heard someone shouting your name just the other night; it was horribly loud, wasn't it, Petunia? Was that you? I almost fell out of bed!" She mimicked the action and tumbled to the ground, giggling. "It was quite a fright."

"No, that was my father." Severus suddenly felt rather nervous. What if Lily had heard the other things his father had said? Did she hear his father call him 'worthless'? 'Cheap'? 'The good-for-nothing, useless imbecile'? Did she hear his cries for help? His face felt uncomfortably hot all of a sudden.

"What was he shouting about?" Petunia suddenly piped up, from behind Lily. When she had come over from her side of the tree, opposite him, Severus did not know, but he decided he didn't like her company. Not as much as Lily's. Not much at all, in fact. There was certainly something different about her. Maybe it was the way she scrutinized him with those eyes of hers, or the way she just… _talked._

Lily's eyes flashed, and she got up to elbow her sister hard in the shoulder. Petunia winced. "Tuney, don't ask things like _that_! He wouldn't want to tell us about it – it must've been _awful_!"

Severus was finding it quite hard to take it all in. Petunia gave her sister a glare and began to rub her shoulder ruefully, as Lily continued to rant cheerfully on.

"So we're next-door neighbors, isn't that convenient, Severus? Severus…that's a rather queer name, don't you think? But it is rather special. I'm really glad we've all got unusual names. It's so annoying when someone else has the same name as you do, it gets so confusing sometimes!" She paused for a moment, which Severus was glad about, since she was talking so fast it was hard to process what she was saying. "Severus is a long name, though. Would you mind if I called you Sev instead?"

Severus looked incredulously at her, one eyebrow raised. He had never been called anything other than Severus. His father mostly referred to him as a Squib, worthless boy, or worse- but…Sev?

"What, don't you like it?" said Lily, noticing his expression. "It's got a nice ring to it. Hello, Sev!" She giggled again.

Severus had no idea what to say next. "Um…"

"Lily, for goodness' sake, calm down and let him breathe." The other girl had walked over to him now. "I'm Petunia. Lily's my younger sister." She made no move whatsoever.

Severus took in her pale grey eyes, her equally pale complexion and her dull blonde hair. Petunia didn't seem nearly quite as friendly compared to her brightly colored, much more vibrant, more _realistic_ sister.

"Er… hello, Petunia."

"Oh, don't call her that, it's such a bother, just call her Tuney," said Lily quickly. "I do love nicknames! Tuney and I aren't just sisters, we're best friends!" Lily said, smiled that bright smile that made her eyes glitter like stars.

"So what were you doing alone behind this tree?" said Petunia. She narrowed her eyes again, accusingly. "I've seen you before. You're always behind the same tree, aren't you? Watching."

"I…" Severus was speechless. He cursed himself for not hiding well enough before. But he sometimes just _had_ to get a better look. It was so tempting!

Lily gave her sister a look that seemed to mean something between them. "Don't embarrass him so, Tuney. He wants to play, don't you, Sev?"

"Play?" Severus wasn't sure whether they wanted him to play with them or not. Were they just doing it out of politeness? Then again, it would seem quite rude to decline the offer, he mused. So he looked up at them and said, "All right. But how do you… _play_?"

Both girls looked at each other for a second, and suddenly began to fall about giggling. Severus was astounded. What was so funny about what he said? Was there something wrong with it?

"You don't know…how to…_play_?" Petunia was doubled over, her grey eyes glittering with mirth. "There's nothing to it, really! You just play games, and you have fun! That's it, you silly person!"

Severus felt even worse than he had before. Petunia was laughing at him, and Lily was giggling too. But he noticed a difference in the way the two laughed. Lily wasn't laughing _at _him, she laughed without the patronizing tone Petunia's laugh seemed to have. She laughed _with_ him, not _at_ him.

As he stood there watching the two girls giggling in a heap, Severus decided that he liked Lily a lot more than only moments ago – a feat which he had thought was thoroughly impossible from the moment they had first spoken to each other.

"I don't know. I've never had a friend before." Severus bit his lip nervously.

"Oh, don't be silly, that's quite all right. You're really funny, Sev. Do you want to play hide-and-seek?" Lily said. Petunia was still laughing, but Lily gave her a look and the older sister shut up promptly. Severus was grateful that Petunia had stopped – he was sure he couldn't have felt any worse. But Lily had called him funny…

Severus vaguely understood hide-and-seek, since he had watched Lily and Petunia play it a few times over the past week since their family had moved in a while ago. He was glad he finally had company, even though they were both girls. Although he honestly couldn't care much at this point, he hoped they wouldn't get him to play anything too girly. He once saw Petunia bring a handful of dolls which looked like girls in short pink skirts who had been Petrified and diminished with a _Reducio _spell. He wrinkled his nose at the memory of Petunia pretending the dolls were going out to have a tea party together. He seriously hoped that playing tea parties with dolls wasn't something all Muggle children did, especially Muggle boys. He hated pink, he detested it, despised it. It was such a… _loud _color. And he could see absolutely no point in dolls.

Once again, he had let himself daydream for too long. Petunia and Lily were both giving him questioning looks. He flushed, and nodded with a small smile.

* * *

><p>For hours after, time seemed to pass quicker than Severus had ever experienced in his life. Lily and Tuney seemed to be two balls of everlasting energy, and never seemed to get tired as they played hide-and-seek again and again. Severus found that he was quite good at hide-and-seek. He managed to hide himself in many different places – behind rocks, in bushes, and even in a patch of grass nearby that grew unnaturally (and conveniently) high. He was currently hiding right up the tree where Petunia had put her forehead against the trunk, counting slowly with her eyes closed.<p>

"Ready or not, here I come!" Severus tried to keep himself as still as possible as Petunia looked around. _Please don't look up, _he thought, as he perched carefully on his branch.

Suddenly, he realized the peril he was in. He was on a very high tree branch, and as he looked to his left, he noticed that the tree branch wasn't strong enough to hold his weight. The branch looked as if it was about to break, bending lower and lower, the tips of the leaves almost touching the ones below it. Severus began to panic; his heart beat faster and faster. He stared intently at the end of the branch, wishing with all his heart that this was the moment where his magic would finally surface. He had been waiting long enough for his own magic to appear, when it should have showed itself months ago, but as the years passed, he never showed a sign of having any magical powers.

The branch continued to bend. Perhaps he really was a Squib after all. No wonder his father called him worthless.

There was a loud crack, and he was falling through the air before he knew what was going on. It was a long way down, and the branches scratched and tore at his clothes as he plummeted downwards.

Severus forced his eyes open and looked below him. His eyes widened in fear. Petunia was right below him, and she was oblivious to him falling. He was going to crush her if she didn't get out of the way.

Severus screamed. It was a loud, ear-splitting sound, which he didn't recognize. He was petrified, paralyzed, absolutely terrified. He knew he was going to die as soon as he reached the ground. Or even worse, he was going to break something, and then he would have to explain to his father how he got into this state, and he would have to endure his father hitting him over and over again… he might even kill Petunia, and Lily would never forgive him. And he would never forgive himself.

He closed his eyes tightly, and waited for his moment of doom. _I wish I wasn't a Squib…_

Then he felt a surge of energy coursing through his body, electrifying, exhilarating, and when he opened his eyes, he lay several meters away on the soft grass, away from the tree, away from Petunia. His eyes widened in amazement, and he looked over himself. He was unscathed.

And both Lily and Petunia were staring at him.

Severus felt horribly self-conscious as Petunia stared with her mouth open, her eyes as wide as saucers. Lily also appeared to be shocked, but her reaction differed greatly to her sister's, much to Severus's later mixed gratitude and disappointment. There was something in those expressive emerald eyes of hers, a mix of different emotions… then all those emotions vanished from her eyes, and she whispered in joy and wonder, "You can do it too, Sev! I'm not alone!" She went up to him, and her eyes were shining like Severus had never seen before. "Sev, you're _different_ like me… I thought I was the only one!"

Petunia's mouth was still a perfect O, just like it was since Lily has last moved. She stood speechless, lost for words - something Severus learned later to be a great feat. She stared at Lily, then Severus, and then to Lily again. Quick as light, her eyes flashed - and they seemed to sparkle like Lily's, but it wasn't from happiness. Her eyes filled with tears of contempt and jealousy, and she glared at the two of them and spat:

"You… _freaks._"

Her tone was completely different this time when she said it. Her voice had an edge to it, and it was a tone of nothing but disgust, anger… Severus felt slightly intimidated by her voice and of the way she looked at him. Even though she was a Muggle, he decided she came a very close second to his father on the list of most terrifying people alive.

Petunia turned away, just as the first tear spilled over and ran down her bony cheek. Giving Severus and Lily one last glance of unadulterated loathing, Petunia ran as fast as she could, through the long green grass, over the bridge above the river, back to her and Lily's home. Severus and Lily watched in hushed silence as they watched her go.

There was an awkward silence between the two. Both of them said nothing as they looked at each other. Severus tried to keep his face as emotionless as possible, but his mind was brimming with questions. What had just happened? Why was Petunia so angry? Couldn't she do it too? If Lily could levitate a leaf, why couldn't she? Was Petunia a Squib? Was she even magical at all?

"Tuney!" Lily had turned away from Severus, and she shouted in the direction where she had gone. "Tuney! PETUNIA!"

Then Lily ran off in pursuit of her sister, without a backward glance. Severus stood up, and fought to keep a blank expression, as he watched Lily run, her long red hair dancing in the wind like flames in a blazing fire, and its owner yelling, "Petunia! _Please!_ Petunia…"

Soon Lily was too far away for him to hear her any longer, leaving Severus still standing there where she had left him.

"Lily…"

**Author's Note:**

**First of all, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for reading! I've wanted to write for a while, but I never had the time. However, after my friend your_best_enemy's success at writing fanfiction, I decided to give it a try. Just by the way, thank you to your_best_enemy for beta-ing this story. I thought I was quite happy with my story when I finished, but you perfected it. I know I've told you a million times, your_best_enemy, but I shall have to kill you if you don't become a writer in the future.**

**I would really appreciate it if you leave a review, no matter what you think about my story.**

**Enjoy!**


	2. Autumn

Autumn

The next time Severus saw Lily again was weeks later, when the leaves were floating off the trees and the weather had gotten slightly colder, and there was a sharp chill in the air. He saw her in the meadow sitting under the very same oak tree he had hid behind the first time he met her. Severus ran up to her, calling her name. He noticed that Petunia wasn't anywhere in sight; he didn't want to admit it to himself, but he had to say that he was just a little bit scared of Petunia – but of course, he couldn't tell Lily that.

"I thought you would never come," said Lily, with a small smile.

"I'm sorry," said Severus, surprising himself, with finding himself more sincere than he had originally intended. He usually just lied about these things; feelings, thoughts, the like. "I just felt…"

"Confused?"

Lily had known exactly what he was thinking – and this scared Severus slightly, but he could deal with it. She was right in thinking that he felt rather odd – and as Lily put it, simply confused – over the past few weeks, but it wasn't just that. Without looking at Lily, he said, "Um, I'm really sorry about what happened with Petunia."

"It's fine," said Lily, but he caught a small tear sliding ever-so-discreetly down her cheek. She turned away and hastily wiped her eyes. "It was never your fault."

Severus knew it was, in its own way, but he stayed silent. Lily's mood contrasted in clashing colors to the first time they had met. Then, she had been so joyful, so vibrant and just so… _happy. _There was no other word for it. Of course, that had all changed now. "Does she still think we're… freaks?" Severus said tentatively.

"I wouldn't know," said Lily, and Severus was just about to ask her why, then she said quietly, "She hasn't spoken to me since, Sev." She looked up at him, and Severus could see the tears glistening in her eyes. "My parents don't know what's happened between us, and I don't know how to explain."

Severus felt – for lack of a better word – bad. He knew that if he hadn't met Lily, Petunia would have still been her best friend. He knew that he was a poor replacement for Petunia; he didn't even know how to play any game properly until they had taught him! And Petunia was Lily's _sister_, they had practically lived together all their lives, and he had ruined it for both of them by falling out of a tree.

_Stupid tree._

Once again, Severus was speechless. Sitting down next to Lily, he could do nothing but stare at the clouds.

They sat in silence for a long time. Severus wanted Lily to feel happy again, to play hide-and-seek and maybe learn a new game or two, but he knew, by the little tact he had acquired to know, that now wasn't the best moment to ask. Severus wasn't stupid. In fact, he prided himself greatly on being the opposite – despite the depressing addition of premature cynicism, pessimism, depressing demeanor and brutal honesty. Lily had just lost a friend, and it was all _his_ fault.

What could he do, though? Was there anything he could do to make Petunia and Lily friends again? Nope. He knew it was a lost cause – nothing could change the fact that he and Lily were "freaks" in Petunia's eyes. It wasn't anyone's fault that Petunia wasn't magical, nor was it his or Lily's fault that they could do things Petunia couldn't. He imagined teaching Petunia magic – and had to stifle a laugh. No, it wouldn't have ended well. He could barely do simple magic himself! And Muggles were incapable of it anyway. Severus tried to imagine how hard life was for Petunia – he himself couldn't visualize not being able to do magic, now that he could, but it was even harder to think of having a sister or brother who could do it when you couldn't. He felt a surge of pity for Petunia, but he then remembered that he was supposed to be scared of her plus she hated him, so he stopped.

Maybe he could try cheering Lily up instead.

He looked around, and his eyes fell on a patch of grass covered with small, white flowers, not so far from where he and Lily sat under the tree. He concentrated with all his might, and reached out his hand. Slowly but surely, one of the flowers, still in bud, detached itself from the grass, and bobbed up and down through the air towards him. It wasn't the most stable magic, but it was a start. Severus noticed that he didn't feel that rush of energy like he had felt the first time he had done magic. Maybe it only happened the first time, or perhaps he got used to it. Or maybe this feat wasn't as strenuous as the last? He certainly didn't feel quite as drained as the last time.

When the flower was close enough, Severus reached out and caught it in his pale hands. Lily had still not noticed him. She appeared to be staring off into the distance, with a wistful expression on her face. _Probably thinking about her sister, _thought Severus. He cradled the small flower in his hands, unsure of what to do. The petals were pale and delicate; he didn't want to break them. Severus glanced around, and taking a wild guess, he hesitantly blew on it.

Nothing happened for several moments; Severus felt quite stupid after all the while. He watched the flower with a dejected expression as it lay there motionless in his small, pale hands.

Then, as he watched, the bud moved on its own, just a little bit, as if the inside of the flower wanted to take a peek at the world. His eyes widened, and he felt a rush of excitement as the flower opened, slowly, but surely, into full bloom.

He levitated the now blooming flower in Lily's direction, gaining confidence, and managed to hover it in front of her face. Lily blinked and stared at the flower, her green eyes slightly crossed. _Oops, _thought Severus with amusement, and made the flower fly just a little bit further away from her face. Lily looked at the flower, then at him, and smiled. It was that smile again, that smile that made him a little weak at the knees, but warmed his heart at the same time.

* * *

><p>The wind whistled through the autumn leaves, and soon the leaves were falling around them, turning and spinning in the air like the emerald leaf Lily had levitated in the summer, the first time they had met. Lily started to laugh as different shades of red, orange, yellow and brown fell around them, and on themselves too.<p>

"Let's make a leaf pile!" she said, cheering up considerably. She got up and started to gather leaves around her into a small pile. Severus got up too, and for the next few minutes they worked together, making the leaf pile higher and higher until almost every leaf on the ground had gone. Severus half-expected a huge gust of wind to come and blow the pile astray, but it never came, so he and Lily jumped into the heap of leaves and laughed as the leaves made crackling and rustling sounds beneath and around them.

After a while the leaves got a little uncomfortable, and the two of them simultaneously tumbled out of the pile, laughing again, the mass of leaves now a layer of autumn hues around them.

Lily levitated a leaf into the air, her emerald eyes shimmering with the intensity of her concentration. The leaf was a blazing red, the same shade as her fire-coloured hair. Severus smiled as he remembered the leaf Lily had hovered into the air the first time they had met – it was a brilliant shade of emerald green, just like her eyes. Severus had always admired Lily's eyes and hair. They were so colourful, compared to his own.

"Can your parents do magic?" said Severus after a while, playing with a tuft of grass next to him.

"No, it's just me." Lily was admiring the tiny flower, still floating around her head, as she spoke to him. "Since I was little."

"Do your parents know?"

Lily froze, looked at him, and said, "No."

Severus stared at her, failing to hide the surprise etched into his features. "But didn't they notice anything? Some weird things must have happened at some point." Severus couldn't imagine not being able to tell his parents about magic. It felt so… _wrong. _Then again, his mother couldn't care less. She expected magic from him, after all, and the fact that he had shown it at such a late time disappointed her greatly, as he could tell from how she had stayed up in her room for longer periods than usual. As for his father… Severus decided that he didn't want to think about him at the moment.

Meanwhile, Lily was speaking in answer to his question. "Well, yes, more times than I'd like to admit." She smiled as she stared into space, trying to remember. "Petunia's always known, since we spend so much time together," Lily looked momentarily uncomfortable when she mentioned Petunia, but Severus didn't say anything, so she continued. "…and she's always been a little curious why she couldn't do it when I could."

"Strange things have happened – like the time I fell off the swing when I was really high up, and I just floated to the ground." Severus remembered that – he had been watching her at the time, but of course he didn't tell her. "It was sort of like what happened with you when you fell from the tree weeks ago. And the time I wanted my dress to be blue, and it just turned blue without me having to do anything. And the time I wanted to get out of the house and I just unlocked the door without a key…"

She was counting the incidents off on her fingers, and Severus thought it was all very interesting. Apart from him falling out of the tree, and levitating the flower just a while ago, he hadn't really used his magic to do anything else. His father didn't know he could do magic, and Severus expected that his mother was never going to tell him. Severus sometimes suspected his father didn't know his mother was a witch, and while it was unlikely, it wasn't entirely impossible either, since they didn't exactly spend that much time together.

Lily was still talking. "My parents noticed – of course they did, how could they not? – but they didn't really do anything about it. I guess they just thought they were freak accidents, or that I was just that lucky." She smiled.

"You're not the only one, you know."

"I know. You can do things too, Sev." Lily looked at Severus with the kind of incredulous expression that seemed to say _Duh?_

"No, I didn't mean that! We're not the only ones!" Severus felt slightly frustrated. He knew that Muggle-born children didn't know that much about the wizarding world, but he hadn't guessed that they were completely oblivious to it. _But then, _he thought suddenly, as an idea came to him, _if she doesn't have anyone to tell her about the wizarding world, why can't I?_

Lily looked bewildered. "Then how come I've never met anyone else like me, apart from you?"

"No, you don't understand! Muggles don't know about magic because – "

Lily cut him off rather abruptly. "What are Muggles?"

Severus started. "Um, people who don't have any magical powers. People like Petunia." _People like my father, _he thought, but he didn't say that.

Lily stiffened at the mention of Petunia, and Severus saw her eyes flash once again. She didn't say anything for a moment, and Severus watched as she blew on the flower, and it closed up again. He realized he had struck a touchy spot in her, and he promptly shut up.

Lily floated the flower in front of her, just like what Severus had done, but less wobbly. "What, so like _normal_ people, then?" Severus winced at the emphasis of the word 'normal'.

"I guess you could call them that. I think magical people think of themselves as normal though, so I really don't know."

"So wizards and witches do exist, then," said Lily, as she looked at him with wonder. Time and time again, Lily never failed to surprise him with how much her mood could change in a minute.

"Yes. I'm a wizard, and you're a witch." Severus was smiling inside, he had never expected himself to have to explain such _basic _stuff to Lily. It had all just come naturally to him when he was little!

"Then do fairies exist? Dragons? Mermaids? Elves?" Severus nodded after every question, and Lily's eyes lit up brighter at every nod. She looked extremely excited. "So they're all true! All those fairy tales I read when I was little were all true! Oh goodness! Then there must be princesses and princes and… and…"

Severus raised his eyebrows in amusement. Lily was almost hyper with excitement, and her hair seemed to bounce around in her happiness. "No, there aren't princes and princesses," he said, and her face fell. Severus paused for a moment, then deadpanned, "In fact… I'm the closest thing you can find to a prince."

Lily suddenly stopped jumping around and looked at him curiously. Slowly, she said, "You're… a prince?" Her expression was the epitome of disbelief, and Severus thought she had a good reason to be dubious. What with his ragged clothes and greasy hair, he knew he didn't look anything remotely royal at all.

He managed to hold her gaze for a few seconds before he snapped out of it, laughing and shaking his head. "No, not really. You see, my mother's last name is Prince, and so I'm half a Prince… get it?" Severus really hoped his joke was funny to Lily, he thought it was. It was, after all, his first ever attempt at making a joke.

Lily's eyes seemed to cloud over, and she looked very puzzled. Severus was about to curse himself for his failure, but then her eyes lit up, and sparkled as she laughed that tinkling laugh Severus always smiled at.

"Oh, I see! You're half a Prince – so you're half a prince! Oh, you're _funny_, Sev!"

Severus was happy – his joke wasn't that bad after all! Even though Lily still took a little while to get it, she got the gist of the joke in the end. He smiled as Lily laughed and laughed, her flame-red hair floating in the breeze, and her emerald eyes glittering with laughter. He began to chuckle too, which only made her giggle louder until both of them were rolling around on the grass, a comical bundle of mirth.

"What are you laughing about?" a voice said.

Severus and Lily both jumped at the same time. They looked at each other.

"Did you say that?" they said at the same time.

"No," they both said again.

Someone appeared from behind a bush, and walked over to them under the tree. Severus noticed she kept a small but noticeable distance in between herself and Lily, narrowing her eyes at them the whole time.

It was Petunia; Severus almost didn't recognize her. Her manner was similar to hers last time Severus saw her, but she seemed more – suspicious. The way she held herself was much less carefree, and her face had become more horse-like too, if that was even possible.

"What do you want?" said Severus, immediately defensive. "Are you going to humiliate yourself some more? I think you did a pretty good job last time."

"No, I'm just telling you to get your hands off my sister."

Severus blinked. Even if he did stay away from Lily (which was something he did not want to do), it wasn't exactly going to help anything, was it? Lily was still as magical as ever – and Severus had to admit she was better than him, since she had been able to do it since forever – and it wasn't like he was influencing her to do anything dangerous. Obviously, Petunia thought differently.

"This is all your fault," she said in a menacing tone, and she took a step closer.

"Tuney, please…" said Lily pleadingly, getting up.

"DON'T CALL ME THAT EVER AGAIN, YOU _FREAK_!" Petunia shouted, turning on her. Her pale grey eyes flashed, and she looked scarier than ever as she glared at Lily with nothing but pure hatred. Lily gasped, and pressed herself against the tree, her fists clenched as tears welled up in her eyes. Petunia scowled bitterly.

"Petunia, I thought we were friends…"

"Well, after you started hanging out with _him, _it's pretty obvious we're not anymore!" Petunia shot back. "I never liked you anyway. Do you know how it feels, watching you do magic every day when I can't? Do you know how it feels, to constantly watch you being praised by Mummy and Daddy? Do you know it feels, to always be second-best?" Petunia seemed to get angrier and angrier with every word she uttered, and her bony features had gone rigid with rage. "And you never cared about me! You were in your own wonderful, pretty, _perfect _little world, but you didn't even notice your older sister. You're just too _selfish_." She spat the last word with disgust.

"I'm sorry, Petunia!" said Lily. The tears rolled down her face and she didn't even bother to wipe them away. "I'm so sorry, Petunia, please forgive me… I can _change_, I know I can!"

Severus, meanwhile, was watching the emotional exchange between the sisters in complete silence. He thought it was rather pathetic of her sister, really, bullying Lily to tears. Severus suddenly felt a rush of protectiveness for his red-haired friend. He wanted to do something, but what? He couldn't use magic; that would screw it up even more. And Petunia hated him. He decided that the best thing to do was to not do anything.

"So saying 'sorry' is going to change everything now, isn't it?" said Petunia sardonically. "Everything's going to be perfect for you again, isn't it? That's all you want! Well, I'm not going to forgive you. It's too late for the two of us. I realize that now. I'm going to go home and tell Mummy you're nothing but a freak."

Tears were streaming in rivulets down Lily's face at this point. "Do you really hate me that much?" she said in a whisper, her voice choked, her eyes failing to meet her sister's.

Instead of replying, Petunia gave her a final glare that seemed to say "I won't ever speak to you again", turned around and ran off without looking back.

Just like that, the atmosphere had completely changed. Severus really hated Petunia now. She ruined _everything._

Lily looked as if she was about to run after Petunia again, as she had done last time, but instead, she turned around and buried her face into Severus' shoulder. As she cried, Severus awkwardly stroked her hair, feeling rather helpless, staring into the horizon where Petunia had disappeared. He watched as the small white flower he had given Lily before Petunia's interruption slowly wrinkle and turn brown.

Soon, the flower had wilted, and it fell from Lily's hands into the soft grass, forgotten.

**Author's Note:**

**Once again, thank you all for reading! Please review…and thanks to your_best_enemy once again.**


	3. Winter

Winter

Severus and Lily saw each other more and more after the day Severus had dubbed (maybe not so fondly) as 'the Petunia incident'. Soon the seasons had changed again, and it was a freezing, cloudless day. The wind was colder, stronger, and generally meaner as it seemed to bite at their faces as it whistled past, leaving the two shivering in their clothes, which suddenly didn't seem as warm as they had been ten minutes before.

The river had frozen over. Both of them were perfectly comfortable on the grass, which was a little damp but not frosty in the slightest. It had snowed earlier that December, but the snow had melted, and the coldest moments of winter were already long gone. However, it was still cold enough for both of them to be shivering down to their fingertips. Lily didn't feel like playing, and when it wasn't her turn to talk, she stared into space, deep in thought. Severus knew Lily was still perpetually heartbroken about Petunia even after all this time, but he also knew that there was nothing he could do about it.

So, being the perceptive and ever-intelligent child he was, left the matter to rest as it was.

Lily idly adjusted her wooly pink hat, which had fallen off as she lay in the grass. Severus looked over at her and smiled. Though he didn't like pink, it was almost amusing how the color clashed with Lily's vibrant red hair, but seemed to go well with her green eyes. Severus himself was wearing dull hues of grey and black - as always. He never wore anything else apart from black.

He had, however, forgotten to bring mittens. Severus tried to sit on his hands to warm them in the chill of the wintry weather, but that idea quickly turned out to be a dud. In retrospect, he didn't really know if his own mittens would have made a lot of difference; they were all holey where he had accidentally bit his nails with his mittens on, a nervous tick he had never been able to drop. He looked over at Lily, who was completely wrapped up in layers and layers of clothes, and who obviously wasn't as cold as he was.

Lily noticed him staring at her and said, "Here," taking one of her mittens off and handing him one, giving him a small, wry smile. "At least _one_ of your hands won't be cold."

Severus was relieved at first, until he noticed the colour of the mitten and wrinkled his nose. It was a rosy, lurid pink. Lily noticed his expression and instantly knew what he was thinking. "Oh, come _on_, no one else is here, just wear it!" she said, exasperated. "It won't kill you!" When Severus still didn't move a single muscle, she grabbed one of his hands and forced the mitten onto it.

Severus grimaced, but he did feel grateful for Lily's kindness, even if she had put the mitten on by force. But he really had to admit that his hand did feel noticeably warmer now, and he wrapped his other hand in the mitten-clad one, warming it as well. Maybe pink wasn't such a bad colour after all, he thought. But it did look horrible with black.

"Sev, do you know what day it is today?" said Lily suddenly. Sev smiled, as he always did when Lily said his nickname. He had gradually gotten used to it, since Lily always called him that, but he never called Lily anything else, and nor did he want to call her anything else.

Severus didn't tell Lily this, but he honestly thought that Lily was the prettiest name he had ever heard. Lily didn't seem to mind him not calling her anything other than Lily – after all, her name was rather short.

"It's the thirtieth of January," he replied.

"Yes," said Lily mysteriously, "but today's a _special_ day for me." She smiled, taking care to emphasize the word _special_. Severus looked at her blankly; she rolled her eyes. "It's my birthday, Sev."

"Oh… happy birthday!" Severus wondered why he had never asked for Lily's birthday. His own birthday had passed weeks ago, on the ninth, in fact, which meant he was older than Lily by exactly twenty-one days, but he never mentioned it to her. After all, it wasn't a big deal, even to his parents. His mother constantly stayed in her room moping about something or other anyway, and his father just treated him as he normally did. Severus sometimes wondered whether his parents even remembered his birthday at all.

"Nothing's going to upset me today, Sev. Not even Tu – " Lily looked like she was going to yell at herself, then shook her head briefly and pretended like nothing had happened, continuing calmly, "I mean, Petunia. Nothing's going to stop me from feeling happy today. I've finally turned eleven!"

Severus suddenly realized that he didn't have a present for Lily, and his stomach twisted a little with guilt, despite the fact that he couldn't have known in the first place._ Well, it's far too late now, _he thought. Perhaps he could find something for her, but he had no idea what Lily wanted. With a family like hers, Lily probably had everything she could possibly want. He thought about this new realization for a moment, eyes widening when an idea suddenly came to him.

He got up and went to the river, cautiously stepping on it with one foot to see if it was strong enough to hold his weight. It seemed safe to walk on. He felt in his pocket for some kind of container, something big enough to hold something small, and sighed with relief as his nimble fingers felt a flask at the bottom of his pocket, left over from yesterday's potions experiment. He took a cautious step, then another, and soon he was tentatively but safely walking on the river. Lily was still where she was; she'd turned back to gazing morosely up at the new leaves growing out of the branches above her head. The sun peeked out from a hole in between the clouds, and the sunlight wasn't very strong, casting long grey shadows in all directions.

Severus lay down on his stomach, and inwardly grimaced as the ice touched his cheek, and he felt shivers running all the way down his back, which altogether wasn't a very comfortable sensation. Ignoring the cold, he inched his way forward, rather like a worm, the whole way peering through the frosty but still translucent ice, as if he was searching for something underneath.

He spotted movement in the river beneath the thick layer of ice, and stopped. He concentrated on a particular place not so far from where he was, and imagined cutting a perfect, round circle in the ice, creating a small hole, just big enough for something small and thin to fit through. It took a little bit of effort and some unnecessary squinting, but eventually a hole appeared in the ice, perfectly shaped, and with a feeling of satisfaction (and relief that he hadn't completely destroyed the ice and fallen through), he inched closer towards it. Severus took out the flask from the pocket which he had felt a while ago, and dipped it into the icy water. Soon, the flask was filled with icy liquid, sloshing around in the container, but he still didn't take the flask out of the river.

Severus had not meant to keep the flask in his pocket – he wasn't some kind of weirdo who took a container everywhere – he had been experimenting with it, and mixing various things together inside it, just to see what would happen. He had just begun to read a variety of Potions books, and found himself to be deeply engrossed in the subject. He loved Potions with a passion, and he couldn't wait to go to Hogwarts to learn how to make them properly. He longed to make a bottle of Polyjuice Potion, or even Felix Felicis. What he wouldn't do for some liquid luck! But apparently he had left his experimenting flask inside his pocket when his father came out to yell at him, so he had to clear up, and had clearly forgotten to take the flask back out. He was rather grateful he hadn't now.

However, the water wasn't the only thing he was looking for in the river. He peered into the river, searching for that flash of movement he had seen before he had made that hole in the ice. Suddenly, his eyes widened, and he plunged the flask into the water. Thankfully, his arm was thin enough to fit in through the hole, and he ignored the cold wetness he felt all the way up his arm, as he frantically searched. After a while, his eyes lit up in triumph, and he pulled his arm out of the river, along with the flask, which now contained not only river water, but a small, little orange fish.

"Lily, I got you a present!" he said, straightening up and beginning to walk back across the ice towards the grassy banks of the river. He quickly hid the flask with the little fish behind his back, where Lily wouldn't see, trying not to give away that his arm had gone numb and cold. Lily turned her head, and at seeing Severus standing precariously on the ice with his arms behind his back, said immediately in shock, "Sev! You'll fall through! Get back here, please! _Now!_"

Severus wanted to protest and call out to the redhead, to say the ice was perfectly stable and safe, and nobody was falling through anytime soon, but refrained.

"What happened to your arm?" said Lily, and her eyebrows furrowed into an expression of concern as she saw one of Severus' sleeves completely soaked. She then noticed the hole in the river, and her eyes widened in shock, as she cried, "The water's _freezing, _Sev! What did you do that for?"

Severus took the flask out from behind his back, and said with a small smile, "Happy birthday, Lily."

Lily's eyes stared into the flask, trying to make out what was inside it, then they widened again in recognition and sparkled as she whispered, "Oh, thank you Sev!" Her eyes were shining, and Severus thought for a moment that with those bright eyes, the world wouldn't need the sun at all. Lily reached her arms out, taking the flask into her hands. She laughed at the tiny little fish swimming around in the water (looking rather lost, Severus thought to himself). "It's perfect, Sev! If only we had a cake to go with it as well…"

"A cake?" said Severus, with a quizzical look.

"Yeah! Every year I get a birthday cake to eat with my family to celebrate!"

"Oh." Severus blinked. He had never tried a cake, but he had seen a lot of them in those bakeries he passed by when he went out on his own, along with other things. They looked very tasty, and he liked to hang outside the bakery, smelling the wonderful aroma of cookies and bread. How nice it was for Lily, to have a cake every year. He imagined that cakes must taste very nice, if one ate one on their birthday.

"This is the best present ever, Sev." Lily looked into the flask again, and watched the fish, who was now swimming around in circles. "What should I call it?"

"You're going to give it a _name?_" Severus said in surprise, like he hadn't heard of such things before. Sure, you name cats and dogs and owls and toads, but even fish straight out of a frozen-over river, too?

"Of course! I think everything needs a name, doesn't it? I can't just call it Pet Fish." Lily paused for a moment. "I'd like to call it a name that means red or orange. It's such a pretty colour. What do you think of Scarlette?"

Severus grimaced at the name. "Too girly." At Lily's crestfallen expression, he said hastily, "But of course, if you want to call it that, I don't mind. It's your fish, after all."

"No, Severus," she said. "You gave me this fish, so I'd like to call it a name both of us like. It's your turn to think of a name."

Severus stared at the fish, which had a shimmering pattern of scales all over its tiny body. The fish was such a brilliant orangey-gold colour, it almost looked like a jewel, just like…

"What about Amber?"

"Amber!" Lily burst out. "That's the perfect name for it! It _does_ look like a kind of precious stone, doesn't it? I'm going to call it Amber."

Severus suddenly realized that his entire right arm was freezing. It felt like a cold gust of wind had blown through and into his bones, and stayed there. It was so cold, in fact, that his arm was beginning to grow numb. He didn't say anything, though. He didn't want to burst Lily's happy bubble just yet.

But Lily had noticed him shivering too. Putting the flask carefully in the grass, she got up and looked him over to him anxiously. "Why didn't you say you were cold, Sev?" she said.

"I didn't want to worry you on your birthday," he said, and winced as she touched his numb arm. "Don't touch it. It feel so weird."

"That's really, well, _good_ of you, Severus, but honestly, you're going to catch a cold, or worse, your arm's going to freeze and fall right off!" she said worriedly. "How are you going to survive without one arm?"

"I'll be fine," said Severus.

"No you won't, don't say that! It's my birthday, but it doesn't mean I don't care about you as well. Let me help!"

That sparkle was in her eyes again, that sparkle that only appeared when Lily was doing magic. Slowly, Severus' arm felt warmer and warmer, and when Lily looked up to smile at him again, he flexed his arm and realized it was not only warm, but dry.

"How do you do that?" he asked in wonder. "You must be _really _good with wandless magic! Normally, you'd need an actual spell to achieve that!"

Lily smiled. "I sometimes make myself feel warmer when it's cold. But my parents still don't know about magic, so they always wrap me up in loads of clothes." She gestured at her heavily-clad body as she spoke. "I appreciate it, though. I know my parents love me."

"I wish I could do that," said Severus with longing. He thought back to all the sleepless nights he had had in his less-than-adequate, tiny bed in the winter, shivering with nothing but a thin, holey worn-out, white sheet. If he had known how to do what Lily had done, perhaps he wouldn't have been so cold.

"I guess you'll learn with time. It took me a while."

There was a silence which Severus would normally have found awkward, but with Lily, it wasn't, not even a little bit. He just felt so comfortable with her. It just felt so… _nice_, for lack of better words_._

Lily turned and went back to the place where the flask was, containing Amber the fish. Picking up and holding the flask as carefully as she could, she lay down on the grass again. Severus lay down slightly less carefully next to her, and they stayed there in peaceful silence, staring at the clouds which were slowly clearing away to reveal an equally grey sky. Just at that moment, ever so suddenly, snow began to fall.

The two of them lay there as snowflake after snowflake descended to the ground, whirling and twirling in the cold winter air. Severus stuck his tongue out to catch a particularly large cluster of snowflakes which fell perfectly onto it. He squeezed his eyes tightly shut as the light but slightly bitter flake of ice landed on his tongue, the cold exploding in his nerves.

Lily was doing the same, but after a while she started to play with the snowflakes instead – waiting until the last moment just before the flake touched her rosy cheeks, then using her eyes to suspend the snowflake in the air, then tossing it upwards, and waiting for it to come back down, only to repeat the same action over and over again. Severus turned over and watched her do this on his side, smiling when the snowflake finally reached her face before she could do it again.

"When's your birthday, Sev?" said Lily, after giving him a look so he stopped smiling at her failed attempt to toss the now melted snowflake into the heavens. It landed on her cheek and melted after a second. Lily brushed the tiny drop of water away.

"Oh, it passed ages ago, on the ninth…" said Severus sheepishly. What bad timing it was, to have her ask him now.

"What a shame. I would've gotten you a present if you had told me earlier. I haven't got anything for you, and you've already gotten me a fish. What else could I get you?" She pondered this for a few moments, and suddenly a smile appeared on her face. She turned over so she was facing him, and said, "Sev, I don't have anything else, so I hope you don't mind…"

She quickly kissed him on the nose, pulling back and blushing delicately.

Severus didn't know what to say. He could only close his eyes as she kissed him, as fast as it had been, and he knew it didn't mean anything, but his heart warmed at her touch. Happy late birthday, Sev," she said warmly, in a soft whisper.

Severus didn't know this, but when he reflected on this particular memory many, many years later, he realized that this was the exact moment out of them all when he fell hopelessly in love with Lily Evans.

**Author's Note:**

**Thanks to your_best_enemy for beta-ing, but most of this was my work this time :D I love this ship so much I can't express it in words.**


	4. Spring

Spring

Spring had finally come, and tiny little flower buds were growing on the trees and on the grass and practically everywhere else in the meadow. It was the rainy season now, so the skies seemed to stay permanently grey and the air always smelt damp and refreshing. Each individual blade of grass sparkled with morning dew, but when Severus saw Lily in the meadow again, the skies and everything within a hundred-foot radius seemed to brighten up no matter how vibrant everything already was in her presence.

Lily was wearing a yellow patterned dress that complimented her green eyes – it was the first time Severus had ever seen her in anything else other than trousers and a T-shirt. Severus quite liked it when Lily wore those rough, boyish blue Muggle pants she called 'jeans', but he decided he liked it even more when she wore something like this.

"You look nice today," he said, shyly.

Lily beamed at him. "Thank you, Sev! You don't quite look so bad yourself."

Severus had been wearing a considerably wider variation of colours as of late at Lily's urging, but it only made a slight difference in the way he dressed. He had begun to grow rather fond of the colour blue, so he now wore a mixture of navy and black. He still preferred his usual dark colours, which he knew Lily almost utterly detested. Severus knew it was very likely that Lily was just being polite.

Severus had brought a book along – not to read, he knew that would be antisocial and somewhat rude (he did learn _something_ from his mother, after eleven years of being raised by the woman) - but to show Lily. The last time he and Lily had met up in that same meadow, they had agreed to bring a book from their own worlds to show each other. It had been Lily's idea – she was eager to know more about the wizarding world, and Severus the Muggle world.

"What did you bring?" Lily asked, bending over so she could have a better look at his book. Severus tilted it forward so she could see better; it was a Potions book that he had been completely obsessed over recently. It was rather unlike the other ones he had read – instead of boringly listing out the ingredients and how to mix them together to make potions, every single ingredient had a very interesting description and a whole collection of other amazing facts. Severus was so fascinated, he had memorized practically everything there was to do with every ingredient listed in the book. He was eager to show Lily his book, which he was sure she would find extremely entertaining too.

Lily herself had brought a book with the words _Alice in Wonderland_ written in shiny golden cursive on the front cover_. _It looked very old – there was a picture of two identical, extremely fat people, with a road sign behind them bearing the words "Tweedledum" and "Tweedledee". Severus raised his eyebrows – the two poor whoever-they-were's who were named such unfortunate names.

They exchanged books, both of them looking interestedly at the covers. "_Moste Potente Potions,_" Lily read out. "Potions? Do you wizards really learn this stuff?"

They walked over to the oak tree, hand in hand, their arms swinging reminiscent of a pendulum all the way. They flopped down onto the grass, Severus curling his legs under his thin frame and Lily lying on her stomach, propping herself up with an elbow.

"It's kind of like Muggle…" Severus tried to voice out a word Lily had taught him recently, "Kem-ish-tree – but much better. You'll see."

"_Chemistry, _Sev," Lily giggled. "Not Kemishtree." She gestured at the book which was now in Severus' hands. "I brought you my favourite book – it's not that girly, even though the main character's a girl named Alice. But I think you'll like it too."

Severus looked at the cover again, and noticed the author's name written in gold lettering in the corner. "Who's Lewis Carroll?"

Lily had just flipped to the first couple of pages of _Moste Potente Potions_, and looked over at the cover of _Alice in Wonderland. _"Oh, some writer. He wrote this book a hundred or so years ago." Lily continued to flick through the pages_, _at some point landing on one titled 'Asphodel'. Frowning at the title, she said, "Sev, what's asphodel?"

Severus looked over her shoulder and grinned. "What a coincidence. It's a type of lily, Lily."

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "That was a completely random page!"

Severus and Lily poured over their respective books for the next hour, occasionally asking each other things like, "Do rabbits _really _carry pocket-watches?" and "Is wormwood filled with worms, or is it called that for another reason?"

Severus was naturally a faster reader than Lily was – he had gotten quite a bit of practice at it from reading Potions books – so his eyes skimmed over the pages as quick as lightning. He did stop for a while to admire the pictures in the books, though. It was unusual, to not have the pictures moving, unlike what he was normally used to. He found it a little unnerving that Alice seemed to stare at him through her pale blue eyes in one of the pictures. He wished she would look away, even if it was just for a moment, but she obviously couldn't, it being a Muggle picture and all. However interesting it was that Muggle pictures didn't move, he still preferred the ones from his own world. They were less unsettling. He shook his head, and turned over the page.

Severus hoped that Lily would not find the book he had showed her a bit too hard to decipher – it was covered in spidery, cramped writing in black ink, and the occasional doodle, which was obviously Severus' writing. He had added little notes all over the book, so it was hard to see what was print and what wasn't. On a page on how to make Felix Felicis (which Severus thought Lily would not have bothered to read – it was so extremely long and complicated even he himself didn't understand it at first), Severus had written along the edge of the page 'I could do with some of that…' Severus had scribbled the translation of the potion after a consultation of his father's discarded Latin dictionary, which was made up of Latin words, 'felix - lucky' and 'felicis - happy'. Severus hoped that Lily was able to guess that the potion somehow created luck. _Potions is definitely better than chemistry, _he thought to himself with a smile. _I bet you can't brew liquid luck in the Muggle world._

Severus suddenly panicked. He watched as Lily flipped back to the page about asphodel – Severus expected that Lily would want to read about lilies – _oh no, _he thought, as his cheeks flushed with embarrassment. In one corner of the page, Severus had pointed a spindly arrow at the title and drawn a stick person next to it. Severus watched as Lily practically had to put her nose to the page in order to see it – Severus' drawing was that small. She squinted harder, and the small doodle finally came into clarity. The stick figure was a girl, since it had long hair – Severus remembered it well when he drew it in – and Severus had coloured it in too – the tiny girl had bright red hair and green eyes. Underneath the girl, there was a small scribble – 'Lily'. Severus expected Lily to look at him, laugh at him, perhaps even mock him – but instead, she smiled and blushed. Severus felt relieved – he had expected some kind of negative reaction from her, but it never came.

"Where do you go to learn this? Does wizard school exist?" she asked, as if nothing had happened.

Severus looked at her and blinked. "There's Hogwarts, of course."

Now it was Lily's turn to blink. "_Hogwarts?_ That's the name of the school?"

"Yes, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," said Severus proudly. "You go there when you're eleven. All magical people go there, it's the best wizarding school ever."

Lily laughed out loud. "Hogwarts? _Hog-warts? _You can't be serious. That's the oddest name I've ever heard," she continued to giggle, "who would call their school something like Hogwarts?" She laughed for a while more, then stopped, and her eyebrows creased with sudden worry. "It sounds like loads of fun, but – do I get to go there too?"

"Of course you can! If you can do magic, you can go!"

"But my parents aren't magic!" Lily looked like she was going to panic. "How am I supposed to tell them if I want to go to Hogwarts? How am I supposed to explain? They don't know a thing, _I _don't know a thing. And what will Petunia think?"

"Calm down," Severus wanted to laugh at Lily's worrying over something as inconsequential as that, but he knew it wasn't exactly the right time. "Look, some Ministry people are going to come over and – erm, well, explain – to your parents about magic and Hogwarts and stuff. I suppose it's unavoidable for some Muggles to know about magic when their children can do it, so they have to. You really, really don't have to worry about it, Lily."

Lily looked slightly reassured at his words, and nodded. "Okay. What's the Ministry?"

"The Ministry's kind of like the government in your world, but they're in charge of keeping the wizarding world secret," he explained patiently. "Muggles don't know about magic because the Ministry takes care of stuff like that, so Muggles don't know anything." Seeing Lily's confused expression, and the way her mouth fell open slightly to mean that she was about to butt in, he hastily added, "The Ministry's full name is the Ministry of Magic. Cornelius Fudge just got elected as the new Minister recently, the _Daily Prophet _said so – that's a wizarding newspaper. The Ministry of Magic takes care of…magical incidents. So if you accidentally do something that Muggles don't normally see every day, the Ministry comes in and makes everything right again."

"How?"

"I don't know, but I think they modify the memories of the Muggles who saw the incident so they won't remember what happened – "

"But that's _awful!_" interrupted Lily, who looked very shocked. "Why can't they just let the – " she hesitated for a moment, "er, _Muggles _–" she said, rather uncomfortable with the new word, "keep their memories?"

"Because it's _dangerous, _Lily! We can't all live together, we're too different!"

Lily seemed to ponder this for a moment, and Severus knew that she was very confused at that point. He was just about to tell her more about the wizarding world that she had yet to explore, but then she said, "But I don't know where Hogwarts is."

"It's protected by lots of different enchantments so Muggles can't see it, but there's a train you can use to get there," Severus explained. "You'll get an owl."

"An _owl_?" Lily looked incredulous.

"Yeah, an owl. Owl post?" Severus looked at her, and Lily shook her head blandly. "Wizards use owls to send messages to each other and stuff."

"Oh." Lily blinked. "We use mail, and postmen."

"Yeah, I know, my father's a Muggle."

"Really? So does your father know about Hogwarts and everything?" Lily asked.

"I don't know." Severus bit his lip nervously and ran his hand through his greasy black hair. "He wants me to go to a really boring Muggle school, but I think my mother wants me to go to Hogwarts, all wizarding folk do." He remembered his mother telling him that once. "My dad always thinks I'm not good enough. But I guess he's right."

"Don't say, that, Sev." Lily elbowed him, but playfully. "Everyone's got to have something good in their personality. You're definitely a nice person, and you're funny! That's not so bad, isn't it? It's not your fault if your father doesn't see that."

_He doesn't not see it, he just spends all his time hitting me, _thought Severus. But he smiled bitterly and said, "I suppose so."

"I can't wait to go to Hogwarts!" said Lily excitedly. "It sounds like such a wonderful place! I can't wait until I'm eleven, that's _ages! _I want to go now!"

"We'll both get our owls when we're eleven, I'm sure of it, Lily." Severus had to admit he very much wanted to go to Hogwarts – anything to escape from his father's wrath, and his mother's ever-present depression.

"What do you learn at Hogwarts, apart from Potions?" asked Lily.

"Well…" Severus began to count the subjects off his fingers. "There's Charms, there's Transfiguration, and Herbology, plus Defense Against the Dark Arts – DADA for short – and there's also flying, but you only take that in your first year – "

"Flying?" Lily said dubiously. "_Flying? _Do you actually ride on brooms?"

"Of course, how else are we supposed to fly?" Severus thought that at been obvious, but it had never occurred to him just how much Lily didn't know.

Lily seemed to consider this for a moment, then nodded and said, "Apart from that, I don't understand the rest. What's Charms? What do you transfigure in Transfiguration? Is Herbology only about herbs? And what dark arts are you talking about?"

She was speaking so quickly Severus couldn't even hear the individual words anymore.

"Er, Charms is basically just spells. It's really useful – you can use it every day, for example if you wanted to carry something really heavy, you could make it feather-light, or you could levitate it." He looked at Lily, who was listening to him attentively. "But of course you don't need that."

"Oh, I'd like to learn Charms. It sounds really fun."

"As for Transfiguration, you can change things like a toothpick into a needle, or a mouse into a rock…" He wrinkled his nose. "I've heard it's _really _hard, though."

"That's fine," Lily said. "As long as it's magic, I'm ready for anything!"

Severus wished for a fleeting moment that he had as much enthusiasm as Lily; all he was worried about was fitting in, which he obviously wasn't going to achieve. He prattled on.

"Herbology's just generally about plants, what you can use them for, how to protect yourself from some of them…" Noticing Lily's eyes who had suddenly become as wide as saucers, he hesitated. "Er, moving on. Dark Arts are dangerous, evil things, or spells, or people." He thought for a moment. "Like Dementors from Azkaban. They're these huge cloaked floating things, and when they're around, apparently everything turns to ice and you forget how to be happy. But if you let them kiss you, they kind of… suck your soul out."

Lily's eyes were getting wider and wider, and her eyebrows looked like they were about to fly off her face completely. Severus started to laugh at her comical expression. "Okay, maybe that was _a little bit _too much information."

"Could you tell me more about Hogwarts – like, the school?" Lily said a little nervously. "Um, for example… do you have houses?"

"Of course, we have four!" said Severus, slightly amused. "I read it in _Hogwarts: A History – _it's one of the books I've read that aren't about Potions…" He cleared his throat and continued. "It was pretty interesting, I suppose, but Potions will always fascinate me the most. Anyway, Hogwarts was founded by four people – Rowena Ravenclaw, Salazar Slytherin, Godric Gryffindor and Helga Hufflepuff. Um, the four houses are named after them; they're obviously Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff."

"So…" Lily's brow furrowed and she paused before continuing. "Do the students get put in randomly?"

"Hell, no!" said Severus. Lily gave him a look, and he hastily apologized. "Sorry. Didn't mean that. Um, basically, the first-years get sorted into their houses, and they pretty much stay in that house for the rest of their lives. They get sorted by a hat called the Sorting Hat."

"How original," Lily mused. Severus laughed.

"The Sorting Hat can kind of… see into your mind, and it picks out your qualities and sorts you into your house. It's for this reason that a lot of people like to ask each other what house they're in to see what kind of personality you have." Severus stopped and thought for a moment, as he tried to recall the different personalities of every house.

"Well, Ravenclaw's for the really smart and wise people; their house colours are blue and bronze, with the eagle as their mascot – "

Lily abruptly cut in. "If their mascot's the eagle, then why aren't they called Eagleclaw?"

"I don't know," said Severus, a little flustered. "I suppose it was because the founder was Rowena Ravenclaw, and ravens are supposed to be bad luck. Anyway, Slytherin's for the ambitious and cunning, and their colours are green and silver, but they have a serpent – "

"And why's that?" asked Lily again. Normally, Severus would have snapped at her for her rudeness, but as he thought about it, he couldn't bring himself to; he liked her too much. "Salazar Slytherin was a Parselmouth – that means he could speak to snakes," he explained patiently after a moment of thought. "He was born with it, I think, Parseltongue's really hard to learn."

Lily nodded, and for once she looked satisfied. Severus took this as to mean that he could continue explaining the rest of the houses. "Okay. Gryffindors are usually really brave, and they wear red and gold – their banner's got a lion on it. Hufflepuffs are… um, nice, I guess, and hardworking… their house colours are yellow and black, and they've got a badger."

"Which house do you want to be in, Sev?"

He didn't even need to think to answer that. "I don't really mind, as long as it isn't Hufflepuff," he said automatically. At Lily's raised eyebrow, he explained, "I don't even know how to play properly! How am I 'nice'? I won't be able to fit in at all!"

"I wouldn't mind any of the houses," Lily said with a smile, casually tossing her hair over her shoulder. "They all sound equally good to me. But if I really had to choose, I'd choose Gryffindor."

Severus decided that he wanted to be in Slytherin, actually, now that he had thought about it a bit more. He normally didn't spend his time worrying about houses – he was too preoccupied with Potions experiments. He had also read in _Hogwarts: A History _that Slytherins were like brothers – a friend was a friend for life. He wanted friends. He wanted to never be lonely, and always have company – but most important of all, he wanted to be accepted.

He didn't tell Lily this, but he desperately wanted both of them to be in the same house – he couldn't imagine life without her, even though they had known each other for less than a year. She was his only friend – and now he had one, he didn't want to let her go. _Lily would be a good Slytherin_, he thought. He didn't really care now, as long as he was put in the same house as Lily – he would be a Gryffindor for her, for all he cared. Heck, if they both got sorted into Hufflepuff, as long as she was there, he wasn't going to mind. But of course, he reasoned with himself, Hogwarts was still a long way away.

**Author's Note:**

**If you want to know what happens next, read the next part of the story (which can also be read separately), **_**Lily's House**_**, in which Severus and Lily get their Hogwarts letters and have a sleepover (rated PG), as well as prepare for their first year!**

**Thank you to my wonderful beta your_best_enemy, though it did take a little longer than expected to get the beta'ed file back. As always, I appreciate reviews, but please don't hate. I hope I'll be back soon with more writing for you! Thanks again :)**


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